I don't get it.

You're actually crazy. Everything Martin did was because the traumatic events caused him to hallucinate things that allowed him to justify all his actions.

>>375926861
Walker died at the beginning and he is going through his cycles of guilt.

>>375926861
its a tongue-in-cheek criticism of america's interventionist behavior in war torn countries.
'the player' is an allegory for the US government who sees war as a game to be won for fun and profit and doesn't actually give a shit if they are causing more harm than good

every time the game insults the player its actually insulting the people who sent guys like Martin to war and who instilled Martin with his 'imma gung ho hero gonna save the day' perspective on war

at least that's what I got from it

>>375927902
but are his legs okay?

>>375928107
It's not just a criticism on the US government, but every government and attitude that fosters that. Remember, it is not just the US government that likes to have the US military go out and be the world police, it is just the US government that can't disavow it after.

>>375928325
fair point

>>375926861
fun fact: you spend the whole game going down. ever single level has you descending and pretty much never ascending, yet you keep finding yourself at high places having to keep going down further, even though you start the game at ground level

>>375928107

I wouldn't say it's tongue-in-cheek, it's all dead serious. Apart from that, yeah, it's basically a character study about the hero complex and delusions that American culture seem to nurture.

>>375928602
>I wouldn't say it's tongue-in-cheek, it's all dead serious
it definitely has a sense of humor to it. maybe sardonic is a better word.
>dictionary defines sardonic as 'grimly mocking'
yeah, sardonic

The game is ACTUALLY a criticism against video games that ask you to do things without showing you the consequences of it, just following the text on the screen.

It's meant to be meta but it's not like gunning people down is less fun for it so I think it undermines its purpose.

I thought the story was overblown, honestly.

>>375926861

Everything you do is actually making things worse.

>>375926861
The game is making fun of you for identifying with the characters of a jingoistic fantasy. It twists the conventions of the genre to subvert expectations and really make you think about why you're holding that controller.

>>375926861
the walrus was paul

>>375926861
It's pseudo-intellectual trash for the worst type of non-gamers to try to hold up as games as "art" to validate themselves when ironically it's so hamfisted and surface level that it isn't artistic in writing and only because it's so overt and obtuse about itself could those morons who praise it divine its direct themes and motifs and were it actually artistic enough in its handling of its information for its audience those same people would completely overlook it because they can only see what's shoved right in front of their eyes and they also don't realize they are not advocating for games as art at all since the gameplay of this game was horrendous and the art of a game is in its construction first and foremost as in all mediums. Better to just ignore it for what it is, a litmus test for finding out who is such a raging pleb that they hit this artistic landmine and get stuck there proclaiming "excellence" it insists on itself only they see because they are so nearsighted. Bioshock Infinite is another such example.

>>375927621
But what's real and what's a hallucination? That's what I don't quite get. Is anything in Dubai even actually happening, or is it all just a fictional scenario cooked-up by Walker's brain to deal with the trauma from Kabul, and to try to make himself the hero here that he wasn't able to be back there? And no matter how hard he tries to repaint himself as the good guy, the reality of his failure slowly strips away at the action hero delusion he's experiencing until he's forced to confront the truth. Isn't it a weird coincidence that some journalist he met years ago in Kabul happens to be a central figure in Dubai, and acts like a Hollywood cliche in cutscenes but like a normal human being in the intel files? don't know. I can't make sense of it.